High performance athletes and teams can return to training from Monday June 8th the government have announced.
RTE Sport that the easing of restrictions will now mean that the four provinces, Connacht, Munster, Leinster and Ulster can resume training in larger groups with hygiene and social distancing measure in place. It also means the four soccer Irish teams in European competition, Dundalk, Cork City, Shamrock Rovers and Bohemians can return to training. This is in line with the governments roadmap by expert group on return to sport in place. Carding Scheme athletes with Sport Ireland who were finalising plans for Tokyo 2020 will now return to training at the national training centres.
The Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport released a statement said, “Sport Ireland will compile a list of athletes that will be permitted to return to training, as well as coaching and support personnel”. It continued, “Sport Ireland and the relevant sporting bodies have developed detailed protocols for social distancing and hygiene drawing on international experience, where many countries have already resumed high performance training”.
John Treacy, Chief Executive of Sport Ireland said, “Since Covid-19 restrictions were put in place in March, the operations of our high performance programmes have been significantly affected,”. Mr Treacy continued,”The athletes have shown great dedication in continuing to train on an individual basis in their remote environments. “However, sports that are facility dependent or team based cannot easily replicate the benefits of training at their home environment”.
